The Department of Public Safety launched its five-day &8220;Take Back Our Highways&8221; crackdown last week in efforts to reduce speeds and prevent highway deaths.

According to reports, 26,126 tickets were issued. The troopers wrote 11,931 tickets for speeding and 4,995 for seat belt or child restraint violations. Some 17,991 arrests described as hazardous were made.

This may seem extreme to some or maybe inconvenient, but if the effort means lives were saved, the tickets are a small trade.

The crackdown was in response to traffic deaths nationwide declining 2 percent in 2006, while Alabama’s death rate went up 5 percent to its highest level since 1973.

Accidents are called such because they are not intentional. No one intentionally hits another motorist by going 10 miles over the limit because they’re trying to &8220;get there&8221;

quicker or intentionally puts their child in harms way by not making sure they’re buckled in after every stop.

Two hundred additional

troopers were on the roads joining about 331 officers on regular duty.

During the crackdown, troopers also recorded fewer injuries and deaths than during the same period a year ago. There were four traffic fatalities during the crackdown, but 13 occurred during the comparable period last year.

That extra minute we’re trying to save by speeding on the highway is better spent preparing to take to the highway safely.

Sometimes we need others to save us from ourselves.